SUBSCRIBE:

Australian journalists' killers getting away with murder

Share

Today, 16 October 2013, on the 38th anniversary of the murder of the Balibo Five in East Timor, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) is launching a campaign highlighting impunity over the killing of Australian journalists. Find the press release here.

MEAA has written to Minister for Justice Michael Keenan and Australian Federal Police chief Commissioner Tony Negus demanding that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) be properly resourced to carry out war crimes investigations and to deal with impunity cases of Australian journalists murdered overseas.

There are three cases outstanding where the killers have not been brought to justice: the Balibo Five in October 1975, Roger East in Dili on December 8, 1975 and Paul Moran in northern Iraq on March 22, 2003.

MEAA federal secretary Christopher Warren said: “It has been six years since the NSW deputy coroner Dorelle Pinch conducted an inquest into the death of Brian Peters and the four journalists killed with him in Balibo on this day 1975. And it is more than four years since the AFP announced that it would conduct a war crimes investigation into the deaths of the Balibo Five.

The Balibo Five

Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance/facebook

“In May this year it was reported that the investigation had stalled after the AFP wrote to the families of the slain journalists saying that it was still seeking access to information. This is the most appalling example of impunity when it comes to the murder of Australian journalists and it means that the perpetrators are getting away with murder,” Warren said.

MEAA has also called on the AFP to investigate the murder of AAP journalist Roger East on Dili Wharf a few months after the murder of the Balibo Five with a view to finding the perpetrators and to begin preparations to ensure Mullah Krekar, the individual understood to have ordered the suicide bombing that killed ABC cameraman Paul Moran in northern Iraq, be extradicted from Norway where he is currently in prison to face war crimes charges in Australia.

MEAA believes that although considerable time has passed since the murder of Roger East, the Balibo Inquest was able to uncover several eyewitnesses and valuable evidence that has been able to identify individuals who should be investigated by the AFP. A similar process should be considered to determine who was responsible for murdering East and on whose orders were they operating under.

Paul Moran was the first media person killed in the 2003 Iraq war. According to US and UN investigations, the man most likely responsible for training and perhaps even directly ordering the terrorist attack that killed Moran is Oslo resident Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad, better known as Mullah Krekar. He has escaped extradition to Iraq or the US because Norway resists deporting anyone to countries that have the death penalty. He is now imprisoned in Norway guilty of four counts of intimidation under aggravating circumstances. He is likely to be released in 2015.

Warren said: “The ongoing impunity over the killing of these journalists is a stain on the Australian justice system that, if left unchecked, signals that journalists are “fair game” for powerful people who wish to silence the media and prevent stories getting out. The failure to fully investigate the murder of our colleagues, the failure to bring justice to bear and ensure the murderers are punished does not do Australia any credit when standing up for human rights elsewhere in the world. We should apply the same standards that we demand of others.”

MEAA's end impunity campaign begins today and will run until November 23, the International Day to End Impunity – the day when 58 people, including 32 journalists were murdered in the Philippines in the Ampatuan Massacre. To date, none of the perpetrators have been brought to justice.

Countless citizens, artists, bloggers, musicians and journalists have been harassed, threatened, tortured, intimidated, jailed and worse for exercising their basic human right to free expression. Most crimes against free expression go unpunished.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

What other IFEX members are saying

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its Australian affiliate, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA), in launching a campaign highlighting impunity over the killing of Australian journalists.

More from Indonesia

The Indonesian press has not been free from violence and abuse against journalists. There were more than 60 cases recorded from 2017 to March 2018, with at least 20 percent of the cases involving women journalists.

Amendments to the 2008 Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE) Law retained criminal penalties for online defamation, but reduced the maximum sentence. The amendments also introduced a provision media watchdogs said could permit the censorship of past news articles.

The government has enacted unnecessary restrictions on access to information about forest concessions and land claims. Authorities have harassed and intimidated local activists who have been bringing attention to forest sector abuses, and a number of environmentalists and activists have been arrested or prosecuted in recent months over plantation disputes.

Pakistan is among the countries that do not properly investigate and prosecute crimes against media professionals. Because of the near absolute level of impunity, most of the people who attack, injure or even murder media journalists in Pakistan remain free.

The report is based on incidents of crimes committed against journalists recorded by the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) during the period 2012 to 2016. Most of the incidents of crimes against journalists, particularly killings, reported during this period are related to acts of politically motivated violence.

In the 27 cases of journalists murdered for their work in India since CPJ began keeping records in 1992, there have been no convictions. More than half of those killed reported regularly on corruption. The cases of Jagendra Singh, Umesh Rajput, and Akshay Singh, who died between 2011 and 2015, show how small-town journalists face greater risk in their reporting than those from larger outlets, and how India's culture of impunity is leaving the country's press vulnerable to threats and attacks

Latin America is, by far, the most dangerous region of the world for environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs). The lack of effective guarantees of human rights protection in Latin American States has created this dire situation.

Press freedom in the Philippines continued to be under attack from 2014 to 2015. The killing of journalists is continuing, with four journalists killed from May 2014 to May 2015. The trial of the accused masterminds of the Ampatuan (Maguindanao) Massacre and their supposed henchmen is continuing, but with a primary accused was released, while a witness in the same case was killed.

This 96-page report profiles eight “strongmen” linked to police, intelligence, and militia forces responsible for serious abuses in recent years. The report documents emblematic incidents that reflect longstanding patterns of violence for which victims obtained no official redress.

Journalism in South Asia is far from an easy profession, as the 12th annual review of journalism in the region "The Campaign for Justice: Press Freedom in South Asia 2013-14" portrays. But this year's report also tells the story of the courage of South Asia's journalists to defend press freedom and to ensure citizens' right to information and freedom of expression in the face of increasing challenges to the profession and personal safety.

RWB report is being published ahead of the presidential election scheduled for 5 April. It is the fruit of a fact-finding visit to the northern provinces of Parwan, Kapisa and Panjshir in September 2013

IFEX publishes original and member-produced free expression news and reports. Some member content has been edited by IFEX. We invite you to contact [email protected] to request permission to reproduce or republish in whole or in part content from this site.

Get more stories like this

Sign up for our newsletters and get the most important free expression news delivered to your inbox.